354 



THE GA IU)KNER'S MONTH L Y 



[December, 



of the seasons, and in gardening the continual 

 growth of trees makes a certain class of changes 

 from year to year. We. can help this still more 

 by a little art. It does not, in very many cases, 

 require much time or money so to alter the ap- 

 pearance of a place as to make it bear a very 

 different look to what it did in the past year. A 

 new clump of cheap shrubbery may be planted, 

 or an old one taken away to admit a new view 

 that may have grown up since the original plant- 

 ing. A strip of grass may be laid down on what 

 was once bare gravel. Here a small rockery 

 may be put together; there a nest of roots 

 thrown up, and ferns and trailing plants freely 

 interspersed between them. In this corner you 

 may place a stump, and entice Ivy or some 

 climbing vines to grow over it — a rustic arbor 

 may be formed in some inviting nook, and in 

 another shade-enticing spot a rustic chair or 

 bench be fixed Even the outlines of the flower- 

 beds may be changed, or of the walks themselves, 

 or even the contour of the surface in some in- 

 stances, and all, in many cases, at the expense 

 of a very small expenditure of time and money. 



j requires water at a temperature of 75° to 80° to 

 grow it successfully. Mr. Sturtevant, of course, 

 has not grown it from seed in the open air and 

 flowered it. Mr. George McHattie, when gar- 

 dener to Mr. Spang, of Pittsburg, grew and flow- 

 ered it in the open air. 



[Even in the South it would be scarcely pos- 

 sible to flower the plant in the open air, unless 

 the i»lants were brought forward in heat first, as 

 Mr. Pollock suggests. Mr. Cope flowered the 

 real Egyptian lotus, Nelumbium speciosum, in 

 the same open-air tank in which the Victoria 

 plant was growing, but these also were advanced 

 under glass before being transferred to the open- 

 air basin. 



It may be of interest to note that the Phila- 

 delphia location for the American lotus, Nelum- 

 bium luteum referred to by Mr. Pollock has 

 at length been totally destroyed. The one at 

 Moorestown, N. J., we believe still exists. 



It would be a matter of interest if Mr. Sturte- 

 vant would give an account of his manner of 

 flowering the Victoria in warmed water in the 

 open air of New Jersey. — Ed. G. M. ] 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



VICTORIA RECIA IN THE OPEN AIR. 



BY JOHN POLLOCK. FRANKFOKD, PHILADELPHIA. 



■ I see by your Editorial Notes that Mr. Sturte- 

 vant is regarded as the only one who has flow- 

 ered the Victoria regia in the open air since 

 Caleb Cope did, now over thirty years ago. I 

 grew the Victoria for fourteen years when gar- 

 dener to the late James Dundas, and flowered it 

 in the open fountain in the centre of the garden 

 several years in succession. I had a good-sized 

 plant growing in the Victoria house, and about 

 the beginning of June I planted it in the tank 

 in the open air and it flowered about the end 

 of August. I also grew and flowered several 

 varieties; the Nymphaea and the Nelumbium 

 flowered also. I got the plant down in the 

 Neck, near the old fish house, over twenty- 

 five years ago. I also grew the Madagascar 

 lattice-leaf plant, or, properly speaking, the 

 Ouvirandra fenestralis. I suppose it is now out 

 of existence in this neighborhood. But, Mr. 

 Editor, I am satisfied no one can grow the Vic- 

 toria from seed in the open air and flower it in 

 this latitude ; for it is a well-known fact to those 

 who have had experience in growing it. that it 



FRUITING OF THE ARAUCARIA 

 IMBRICATA. 



BY D. W. LANGDON, IMOBILE, ALA. 



I send you by this mail two broken cones of 

 the Araucaria imbricata from a tree on our 

 place which is fifteen years old, 20 to 25 feet 

 high, and in its third year of bearing. I can 

 find no seed in the cones and would like to have 

 you ''try your luck" in the same direction and 

 report the result. 



I know of only one other tree of it in our sec- 

 tion — on the premises of Mr. M. Newbrick, of 

 Mobile — and this and mine originated from seed 

 grown at Langdon, both trees being of same age, 

 Mr. Newbrick's tree being perhaps a few feet the 

 taller. Our tree is somewhat misshapen, from 

 the effects of a freeze about seven years ago, 

 when the weight of ice on the foliage broke 

 down the branches on one side ; they have never 

 grown out to fill the vacancy. Mr. Newbrick's 

 tree, never having sustained such an injury, ia 

 "a thing of beauty.'' 



These two specimens amply testify that it will 

 grow from seed, with proper treatment under 

 favorable circumstances, but we have not been 

 able to procure seed of it. Is there any other 

 way to propagate it? If yes, please let me know 

 the process as much in detail as to stocks, sea- 



